A forgotten classic: RIP Mr. Mayall (updated)

Rik Mayall, who played the anarchist/mod on the class British sitcom, The Young Ones, has died. Mayall, according to the British press, helped define alternative comedy in the Thatcher era. The Young Ones, Sky News wrote, “featured anarchic, offbeat humour and it helped to bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s.”

The show ran in two installments in Great Britain, with 12 episodes appearing over the course of two years (1982-1984). It showed up here on MTV in 1985 — a brilliant, surreal ensemble comedy that grew out of British punk and the detritus of the ’60s and ’70s as we entered the political desert that was the Thatcher/Reagan era. Structurally, it borrowed from the standard sitcom format, but undermined it with a heavy dose of anti-establishment sketch comedy. Its four student foils — stereotypes of the yuppie, hippie, punk and anarchist/mod — and its willingness to bend all rules was a direct reproach to Thatcherism’s prim lie, and by extension the bullshit Reagan patriotism that had America in its grips.

It would be disingenuous for me to say much more — it has been years since I considered the show and, had you mentioned Mayall’s name last week, I wouldn’t have recognized it. But the show was important and Mayall had a solid career afterward.

His death at 56 is a sad piece of news. The show lives on in DVD form — Netflix is not offering it as a stream, which is unfortunate. Maybe news of Mayall’s death will prompt MTV (of more likely IFC)  to bring it back one last time.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

The college-cost conundrum

Here is what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had to say about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan to cut student-loan interest rates:

“This bill doesn’t make college more affordable, reduce the amount of money students will have to borrow, or do anything about the lack of jobs grads face in the Obama economy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

He’s right, of course. But he’s also being disingenuous — or at least partisan. McConnell knows the Warren plan is likely to be popular because it is expected to save graduates real money on interest payments, which are a huge piece of the debt they are carrying and which are forcing many to alter their career paths, when they are lucky enough to find a job.

McConnell also knows that the GOP isn’t working on the issue of college costs beyond tuition freezes, a vague commitment to privatizing public colleges and funding options and railing against affirmative action programs.

Tuition is higher than it’s ever been, while state and federal aid — both to schools and students — has been falling. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the percentage of public college and university budgets funded by tuition is twice what it was in 1987. And there is evidence thatch of the money is going to administration — new positions, additional support and big top-level salaries — even as schools turn more and more to adjuncts (like me), who work on an as-needed basis. It is a corporate model — just-in-time, temp-driven service means no benefits costs, but it also means students are paying more and getting less time with professors (adjuncts do the best they can, but they often have to teach at multiple schools and can only offer limited office hours). The tuition freeze option will only force more of this on schools.

The cost issue is complicated, but it cannot be addressed until we start putting money back into the schools and expanding grant opportunities for students. You cannot remove billions in government financing over three decades and then pretend that it has not had an effect

Warren’s bill is not intended to fix all of this, but it should helped economically stressed graduates.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.